Tuesday, September 20, 2016

Religious Communities Must Stop Blessing Gun Violence!

[This is a reflection given at Interfaith Communities United for Justice and Peace, icujp.org, on Friday, September 23.]

This week our conference “Not in God’s Name” will
focus on religion and violence. It seems fitting though a bit inconvenient that All Saints Church in
Pasadena will be hosting an event focusing on gun violence at the same time. When
people think of religious violence, they often think of terrorism and Islam,
but far more dangerous is America’s cult of guns.

There is ample evidence showing how guns have turned
into a deadly religion in America. A bumper sticker sums up this pernicious and
delusional belief system: Guns, God and
guts have made America great.

I commend James
Atwood of the Presbyterian Peace Fellowship for condemning the cult of guns in
our country in a brilliant article written in 2008. In this piece entitled “When
Guns Become Idols,” Atwood writes:

I’d like to
expand on my contention that guns in America have become idols. I define
America’s idolatry with guns as an aggressive belief system dedicated to the
expansion of gun ownership which encourages people to take their guns to the
workplace, college campuses, public schools, libraries, national parks,
churches and bars. This belief system is enhanced by an attitude which overtly
and subtly proclaims that safety and security come through guns. My friend,
Rev. Rachel Smith calls this phenomenon “Gundamentalism” Although claiming the
highest of social values, the belief system itself requires continuous
deception and the distortion of the truth in order to minimize or ignore the
30,000 people who are killed by guns every year.

First,
I believe guns have become idols in America because many people give them
sacred status. Warren Cassidy, former NRA executive said, “You would get a far
better understanding of the NRA if you approached us as if you were approaching
one of the great religions of the world.”

In
1998, when Charlton Heston, President of the NRA, was given an antique musket,
he mused, “Sacred stuff resides in that wooden stock and blue steel when
ordinary hands can possess such an extraordinary instrument.”

I hope that
ICUJP will play its part in unmasking the idolatry of guns and proclaim that there
is nothing sacred in these instruments of death. Religious communities must
stop blessing guns and encouraging gun ownership.

I am pleased that Sojourners magazine
devoted its May issue to the question “Should Christians Own Guns/” and
includes an article by a conservative pastor decrying the “idolatry of the gun
culture.” Rob Schenk begins his article with this chilling story about the
relationship between racism and the cult of guns among white Evangelicals.:

SITTING AT A DINING-ROOM TABLE full of fellow evangelical pastors, I
asked how many were “carrying” (a euphemism for being armed with a concealed
handgun). They all raised their hands. Then I asked, “What determines when you
draw your gun and prepare to shoot another human being?” There was awkward body
language and mumbling. After a few seconds passed, one older man said, “I’ll
tell you what determines whether I draw the gun or not. It’s the man’s skin
color.”I
was left speechless by the pastor’s jarring, blatant racism. Still, as
respectfully as possible, I asked him to please clarify what he meant.“Well,
we got a big city nearby, and, you know, the black people there are always
killin’ people. Now, if a colored man comes into this county, I know he means
trouble because he knows he doesn’t belong here. That makes him more dangerous
than a white man. That’s why I’d pull my gun.”The man who was speaking, and the others nodding their heads in agreement, are
my colleagues. I am one of them when it comes to a statement of faith—but not
when it comes to race and guns.

This article
makes it clear why people of faith who oppose gun violence need to work
together to unmask the false religion of guns. As you may know, Jill and I
organized a gun buyback in Pasadena as part of the Palm Sunday Peace Parade.
Over 200 people took part, and we had a Peace-source Fair as well as a guy
buyback. We raised nearly $30,000, bought back 130 guns, and provided grants
for groups like Women Against Gun Violence. We also provided a biblical
perspective on why Jesus would not have agreed with the Evangelical pastors who
were “carrying.” Jesus made it clear
that he didn’t want his followers to use weapons even when he himself was under
attack. In the garden of Gesthemane, when Jesus was about to be arrested by
Roman soldiers, one of his followers cut off
the soldier’s ear with a sword. Jesus rebuked his disciple, healed the
wounded soldier, and said, “Those that live by the sword perish by the sword.”

This is what
Christianity stood for before it was hijacked by the Roman empire and later by the
American empire. I am glad that All Saints is leading an effort to end gun
violence. I have invited Julian Serrano of All Saints to speak to us about her
church’s gun violence prevention work.

Meanwhile, let
us have a moment of silence to pray for those who have been killed by guns. The
statistics are sobering. Here in this land where the NRA encourages parents to
keep loaded weapons in their homes, a toddler
with a gun accidentally kills himself or someone else with a gun each week. Each day 82 Americans perish by gun violence.

World-wide, guns are used to kill as many as
1,000 people each day. Millions more are wounded, or their lives upended when to development aid, markets, health, education
and human rights is disrupted by people with guns.

Let us pray for the victims of this devastating
plague. Let us hold in our loving thoughts the families of those who have
perished due to gun violence. [Time of silence.]

Friends, let us dedicate ourselves to ending this
terrible disease of the human spirit. Those who agree, please say AMEN!

About Anthony Manousos

I am a Quaker peace activist, teacher and author, my most recent book being "Transformative Quakers" and "Howard and Anna Brinton: Reinventors of Quakerism in the 20th century." I serve on the board of directors for several organizations, including the Friends World Committee for Consultation and Interfaith Communities United for Justice and Peace. I love biking, hiking in the mountains, going to museums and art galleries, Classical music, jazz, and being with friends. For twelve years I edited a Quaker magazine called "Friends Bulletin" (now called "The Western Friend") and edited four books and wrote several pamphlets for Quakers. I have taught at numerous colleges and universities, including Carleton College, Rutgers, Pepperdine, UC San Bernardino, San Bernardino Valley College, etc. I am a certified spiritual director through a spiritual direction program called "Stilpoint." I reside in Pasadena with wife Jill Shook, who has published a book on affordable housing (makinghousinghappen.com). We have a lovely garden, citrus and fig trees, a grape arbor, cats named Miss Rosie and Dr. Pepper, and three Arucana chickens.